Fulletal Alchemist: Red Eyes of Truth (REDUX)
by NekoMarina-chan
Summary: After years of training, Elana ins finally able to take the State Alchemist Test. But when he train is hijacked, she joins with Edward and Alphonse Elric, two brothers whom are searching for the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary alchemical item said to defy all limits of alchemy. And when things take a turn for the worst, they discover their differences might be connected...
1. Author's Note

p style="text-align: center;"emAuthor's Note/em/p  
p style="text-align: center;"emThank you for choosing to read my story. This may not be known, but this is a redo of a previous fan-fic that I wrote a while back. Unfortunately, I lost the official documents containing the fanfiction and now have to re-write the story again. But don't worry. I promise to rewrite more often from now on and will do my best to stay updated with this story and future ones to come. Until next time!/em/p  
p style="text-align: center;"em -NekoMarina-chan/em/p 


	2. Prologue

Prologue

The storm was coming.

What had once been a peaceful green meadow was now a giant snow pile. Its bare trees, decorated with pristine snow and sparkling icicles, looked enchantingly beautiful, like something out of a fairytale. As she limped across the powdered frost, the cold air blew in against her cheeks. Her small legs were sore and aching. Her bare hands, holding her wound, were almost numb from the cold. She checked her left hand. Blood. She looked behind her. No one was following her, but the drops of red would surely reveal where her location was. A jolt of pain shot through her body, and she fell to the ground. Her vision started to blur. She needed help. Fast.

She slowly stood on her feet and walked along the snow, the blood dripping faster, the pain hurting more, her eyesight getting blurred, until…

Could it be? She saw multiple silhouettes in the distance of what looked like… children. Or was it her mind playing tricks? No, it wasn't. Children! Children, who were playing, building snowmen, making snow angels and having a snowball free-for-all. And even further in the distances were boxes with triangles on top. Houses. A town! She faintly smiled. They could help. She could convince them to help her. She limped briskly towards the children in the distance, just enough for one of them to notice; A little boy with golden hair like the Sun and matching eyes. He was wearing a heavy coat and a knitted cap on his his head. He noticed her and waved.

"Hey!" he smiled. "You wanna play with us? My brother's making snowmen," He turned and pointed at a boy smaller than him, with hazelnut hair and brown eyes. Next to him was a girl with short, blond hair and ocean blue eyes. Both of them were wearing sweaters and scarfs. The golden boy continued. "And Winry, next to him, is mak-"

He stopped. The girl had now collapsed in the snow. An apprehensive feeling washed over the boy. He slowly walked over to the fallen girl, taking small steps, then bigger ones.

"Hey," he asked in a soft tone. "Are you okay?" No answer. He asked again, this time poking the girl arm. "Are you alright? You get frostbite like that." Nothing. He became more worried. He started shaking her gently. "Please answer, please! Say something!" He shook more violently. "You're scaring me, miss! Please, ANSWER!" he screamed. He turned her body so she lied on her back and gasped. A giant puddle of red where the girl laid had stained the white snow. And on the girl was an even bigger spot of blood. The boy panicked and began attempting to carry the weight-less young girl. Al and Winry ran toward him.

"Hey, Ed!" Winry called as they ran. "Are you okay-" She noticed the blood in the snow. "My gosh, Edward! What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything!" Edward cried in a worried and angry tone, able to now lift the girl into his arms. "Winry! Go get Aunt Pinako! Alphonse! Help me get her inside! Hurry! She's gonna die!" Not knowing what else to do and shocked by their friend's tone of voice, Winry and Alphonse obeyed his commands. Winry ran inside to get Pinako while Alphonse assisted his older brother and lifted the girl across the snow and into their cottage. A woman who was inside, staring at the snow, noticed them walking up the porch stairs and ran to open the front door.

"You guys are back already? You still have-" She watched as the two boys carried and laid the blood-covered girl onto a nearby couch. The woman became concerned and frightened.

"Boys, what happened to her?" she asked in a scared tone.

"Never mind that!" Edward yelled her as he ran some warm water on an old rag and wrung it out. "Open her coat, Mom! We have to save her! Pinako's gonna come and help!" His mother followed his command, and removed the red drenched coat from the girl body, revealing a beautiful cream-colored sweater dress that the girl wearing. It also revealed a giant bullet gash from which the bleeding had come from. Edward dabbed the rag on the wound to clean up the blood on the girl's body. Edward occasionally rested his head on her flat chest, hearing for a beat. The girl was faintly breathing, but she sounded as if she was in pain.

A minute or two had passed when Winry brought a old midget woman with eye glasses at the cottage. "Over here, Grandma Pinako!" Winry cried. After removing her coat, Pinako slammed a bag of surgical supplies on a wooden table and opened it, pulling out a bottle of alcohol and a pair of tweezers. With a magnifying glass in her left hand and the tweezers in the other, Pinako carefully removed the bullet and blotched up the red mess. She then had to take off the dress the girl was wearing and sew up the hole on her flesh. After finishing up, she wrapped up the girl's body with bandages.

"Let the girl rest," Pinako stated to the mother, readjusting her glasses. "The moment she wakes up, give her nothing but broth. That damn bullet was real close to her stomach, so let's not upset it." She then grabbed her coat and went outside to puff some tobacco in a pipe she carried with her. Out in the far horizon, she could feel the cold howls of wind blow across her face. She held her coat tightly. Damn storm's a' comin'... she thought to herself. She then put out her pipe and went back inside.

Inside, the girl was asleep on the couch. Edward sat on a chair by her side, simply watching her to see if she would start to move. Any movement to prove that she was still alive. Alphonse walked by his brother, brushing the snow off his coat. He stood by him. "She's gonna be okay, Ed." he said, trying to comfort his brother. But Edward sighed. He stared at the girl on the couch, who looked like some sort of Sleeping Beauty, dreaming of a happier ending.

It was almost midnight when the girl woke up. When she leaned forward to prop herself up, she felt a painful jolt in her stomach.

"Ow!" She crotched her arms around her abdomen, then noticed that wasn't wearing the same clothes as earlier: instead, a baggy striped nightgown was draped over her small body. She unbuttoned the gown, which revealed a tight wrap of bandages, a small area blotted with blood. She looked around. There was a fireplace ablaze with orange and amber colored flames in the center. It gave off a gentle heat from where she was. It was almost soothing. In front of the fire, She saw a large piece of clothing hanging in front of the fireplace. There were still drops of what appeared to be water dripping from the very ends of it. And next to it was a woman sitting in a rocking chair. She had delicate, motherly features, and her long dark brown hair was swept into a front braid. She seemed busy sewing something. The woman looked up to see the girl awake.

"Oh!" she jumped in her chair. "I didn't see you there." She put down whatever she was sewing and went into the kitchen. On the stove was a large pot of chicken and chopped vegetable soup.

"Pinako said you should only have broth, but personally, I think you'll feel better when you have something some vegetables in your system." She stirred and ladled some of the soup in a small bowl, while the steaming and hearty scent of chicken subtly wafted the air. The woman dropped a small spoon in the bowl and placed it on the stand next to the couch, where the little girl could reach.

"Let it cool down a bit, then eat as much as you can," cooed the woman in a soothing tone, patting the girl gently on her head. Then she returned to her rocking chair and continued her sewing. "Meanwhile I need to finish patching up your dress. I washed them both for you. I hope you don't mind." As the girl waited for her soup to chill, the woman would feel the fabric of the dress in-between stitches. "So amazing." she whispered in fascination. "It feels so lightweight, yet it keeps you warm and it's soft to the touch. Easy to wash, let me add. Whoever made this knew their stuff." She went on with her patchwork, while the girl finally reached for the bowl. She scooped up some of the broth, and a carrot or two, blew gently and took a bite. The soup was warm and delicious. So delicious in fact, she smiled. She took more spoonfuls of the meaty and filling soup before she noticed a figure on the couch. It seemed to crawl up the sides next to her, and the girl felt a sticky substance by her feet. The girl gasped loudly, dropping the bowl and spilling the soup. The woman heard the sound. She reached for an oil lamp and rushed to the girl's aid, whom she found in the shape of a ball shaking violently and breathing heavily, cradling herself in a back-and-forth motion.

"What wrong?" She reached for the girl's forehead, checking her temperature. "Is everything alright?" The girl shook her head, still shaking in her ball formation. Slowly with her jittering hand she pointed to the figure on the couch. The woman looked at that direction, then backed at the girl, then slowly approached the dark shape. The girl held her breath as the seemingly fearless woman slowly waved the lamp onto the figure, only for the golden light to reveal that it wasn't a scary shape at all, but a sleeping boy who was drooling on the couch beside her. The girl sighed in relief, smiling afterwards.

"He scared you, huh?" the woman chuckled softly. "I mean when I say I tried to get him to bed, but he won't let me." She smiled widely as she put down the lamp and attempt to wrap her arms around the boy, but he shifted his body and waved one arm around wildly as if he was swatting a fly in his sleep. The woman and girl laughed. They laughed until they snorted, then laughed some more at themselves.

"He wanted to make sure you were okay, " the woman added. "Even when I almost yelled at him to go to bed, he still persisted on staying here with you." A gentle smile formed on the girl's face. Suddenly, the woman shook her head. "My goodness! I never introduced myself, have I?"

The girl shook her head.

"Well, call me Trisha." the woman replied. "Trisha Elric." She cradled her hand on the sleeping boy's head. "and this is Edward. As you can tell by now, he's a heavy sleeper." Trisha grabbed a broom and swept up the pieces of the broken bowl, throwing them in the kitchen bin. The girl chuckled under her breath. With the broom still in hand, Trisha turned to the girl. "By the way, you never said what your name was." The girl opened her mouth to respond, but the sound of a creaking floorboard had her and Trisha on alarm. Trisha, with with her broom, flipped it around with the wooden end poking outwards. To their surprise, another little boy, dawned in a light blue button-down shirt and some cotton bottoms, stand on the set of wooden stair. With his messy hair, a visible line of dried saliva across his face, and the lazy way he rubbed his eyes, it was assumed he had woken up just moments ago.

"Mommy? what's going on?" he spoke between yawns. His half-opened eyes widened at the girl. "Oh. You're awake, now. Are you alright?" He took one step, almost losing his balance and falling at the foot of the stairs, but his mother dropped the broom and caught him in time.

"Careful, Alphonse." Trisha pleaded. "You could've hurt yourself." But Alphonse wasn't listening. His senses now lead him to the pot of fragrant chicken soup that cooked on the stove. "Hey Mom, can I have some?" He asked her politely. Trisha laughed.

"Of course you can," -she turned to Edward, still sleeping on the edge of the couch- "if you can wake up your brother." Alphonse let out a rather quiet cheer and tip-toed toward his brother as the girl watched a crime in the making.

"Hey Ed, wake up," Alphonse poked his brother's neck, making him flinch back, but still was asleep. "Come on," Next Alphonse went for Edward's armpits, but nothing happened. Alphonse let out a sigh. "Desperate times call for desperate measures." He put his index finger in his mouth and soaked it in saliva. After taking it out of his mouth, he held in his giggles and shoved the wet finger in his brother's ear. This time, Edward reacted.

"What the hell, Alphonse?" Edward screamed, covering his spit-filled ear. But Alphonse laughed and howled until he laid on the floor, clutching his stomach and letting the tears flow. The girl joined him and laughed, as well. Trisha stormed in the living room.

"What is going on?" she demanded. Edward ran to his mother's arms.

"Alphonse 'wet-willed' me!" he pointed his finger at his brother, expecting sympathy. Instead, Trisha smacked his lips with an open hand.

"Ow!" he cried.

"I heard you cursing, young man. Watch your mouth!" She turned to Alphonse, who was now recovering from his own joke. She grabbed both of ears and pulled them apart from his skull until he pleaded. "And what did I say about those wet-willies, mister?" she commanded. Alphonse held back his tears. He joined Edward in recital. "Sorry, Mom." they spoke in unison. Trisha wiped her hands and crossed her arms, giving a look of disapproval among her sons. She turned to the girl, who was no longer laughing and sit upright on the couch.

"Now," she spoke sternly and calmly. She watched as her sons with their heads hanging low, as they stared sorrowfully at either their toes or the floorboards. A wide smirk bore itself across her face. "who wants some soup?" Edward and Alphonse looked at each other and smiled broadly. They cheered as they ran past their mother and into the kitchen table. Trisha turned and beckoned the girl. "Care to join us?" The girl nodded happily and slowly walked the the table. Within moments, four freshly ladled bowls of steaming chicken soup were spread out on the table, in front of each person present. Everyone clapped their hands and gave their thanks.

"Thanks for the food!"

Among the slurps and chews and conversations, Edward focused on the girl next to him. As she slurped up the soup in moderation, he studied her face, how happy she looked whenever she smiled. Eventually, she noticed Edward and made eye contact. Edward flushed with embarrassment and turned away.

"What?" He spoke with his back turned to her. "I just want to know if you're okay, that's all!" The girl smiled at is response, neither of them aware that Alphonse and Trisha were exchanging glances. Finally Trisha spoke.

"You know, you never mentioned your name." The girl stopped eating and looked up. Suddenly, all eyes were on her. But she couldn't. She can't risk revealing herself to them. After what she has seen, what she has heard, she couldn't. Who knows what could happen to them if they discovered she revealed herself to these nice people. She can't risk getting anymore people, innocent people hurt.

And yet…

"Elana." They family still locked their eyes on her. "My name is Elana. And I never got to say so sooner, but thank you. Thank you so much for rescuing me."


End file.
